'Parker Spitzer'--Now With 100 Percent Less Parker

Remember the talk show with the disgraced governor and syndicated
columnist people said would never last? Well, it didn't last. CNN
has confirmed Kathleen Parker is bowing out as co-host of Parker
Spitzer after just five months on the job. The brainchild of former CNN
president Jon Klein, the project was intended to be the network's answer
to the persona-driven primetime programming that had paid dividends for
rivals MSNBC and Fox. The project was marred by reports of tension between the hosts and a staggeringly bad debut episode. And while producers
wisely abandoned the set's curiously cramped seating arrangement and
actually got the hosts to start looking into the camera, audiences had
already bolted.

Spitzer is staying with the network in the 8 PM slot.
Starting Monday, the program will be known as In The Arena. The New York Times' Brian Stelter reports the new format of the show will be that of "an ensemble program with Eliot Spitzer." Which is still a
better title than Parker Spitzer. Or In The Arena, for that matter.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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Ray Gustini is the author of Lucky Town, a forthcoming book about sports in Washington, D.C. He is a former staff writer for The Atlantic Wire.